1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements to equipment used during the preparation of bread making products or similar, for supporting the lumps of dough during the steps of fermentation and baking of the dough, and the invention relates more precisely to general purpose equipment, as well as a tray and molds or membranes for supporting the lumps of dough during these steps.
2. Description of the Related Art
The traditional way of making bread or similar bread making products includes two essential steps: fermentation and baking, which presupposes a priori intermediate handling and storage operations. In the oldest methods, the shaped lumps of dough are first of all deposited for fermentation of linen cloths which are called "napkins". They are then taken up manually one by one to be placed directly on the floor of the oven, either using an oven peel, or an oven loading conveyer.
Such handling operations are delicate, and require qualified staff for the uncooked bread doughs are sticky, soft and plastic.
The appearance of supports receiving the lumps of dough during fermentation and baking, as well as the construction, because of such supports, of ventilated ovens have brought a substantial improvement to these methods. One of the main advantages with respect to the conventional methods is that of doing away with handling.
The lumps of dough are placed just after shaping in metal compartmented supports (woven stainless steel netting or aluminium plates) or flexible supports (textile netting) fixed to a rigid metal frame; the compartments correspond to the shape of the loaves it is desired to produce. The lumps of dough remain in these supports during fermentation and baking.
As for the ventilated oven, the heat required for cooking is no longer supplied through the floor and dome, but by a stream of hot air. Tiered carriages receive the above defined metal or flexible supports and enter successively the fermentation cabinets, then the ventilated oven. Fairly often the carriage is rotated about a vertical axis so that the heat is well distributed (rotary oven). For the smallest sized products, more especially in pastry making, the carriages are replaced by lateral slides fixed to the walls of the ventilated oven.
The supports must allow good baking in this stream of hot air. This is why they are made from open work material such as fine mesh metal grids, thin perforated metal sheets or else an open work glass fabric including at least 50% of void and fixed to a rigid metal frame. In addition, they are specially treated so as to be non-stick, generally by being provided with a silicone elastomer or silicone resin or polytetrafluorethylene TEFLON.RTM. based coating.
It should be noted that these supports are flexible and, for handling them, they are always fixed to a rigid frame formed of a metal construction and sometimes with spacers supporting each compartment.
The frame corresponds to the dimensions of these carriages; the spacers are adapted to each type of netting, depending on the number, the arrangement and the form of the compartments.
What is described above is illustrated for example by the patent applications FR 2 097 608 and 2 559 030 in which we find for example the association of a flexible textile net, formed of a silicone coated glass fabric, with a rigid metal frame to which it is fixed and whose shape assigns it to a single use.
This design, as advantageous as it may be, requires for the baker multiple and specialized equipment, designed for each type of product which he desires to make; this requires a considerable and space consuming total number of pieces of equipment which are not permanently used, and which cannot be done without. Furthermore, the non stick coating of these supports must be periodically renewed, or certain equipment must be changed, which requires the retreatment or removal of the whole assembly to specialized plants.
Furthermore, tests have been made for using this equipment in conventional fixed floor ovens. But the baking is not satisfactory on the metal supports, heterogeneous baking with zones of burning equals "scorching" of the bread. It is possible with a flexible support but, in this case, it must be placed practically in contact with the floor of the oven, and rapid wear has been observed due particularly to abrasion phenomenon during handling.
Finally, it will be further noted that the solutions outlined above of the prior art are essentially valid for the different forms of elongate crusty loaves such as the "baguette". The flexible support technique of the suspended net type, such as those described in the patent application FR 2 559 030, do not in any case allow round, square, oval, etc shapes to be baked. These round, square, oval, etc shapes of dough must at present be baked on metal plates, pressed or not, which may be either greased or covered with a non stick coating.